The Lottery

Does anybody pay attention to super lottery games (powerball and mega millions)? I do.

I always watch to see which state(s) take a major lottery jackpot. Many states allocate lottery profits in their education system, but not all. Each participating state has an official website, where their annual reports are accessible. It's like a little hobby of mine, endlessly interesting. I once found some website with a bunch of head-honchos who are connected to the lottery system. They're "elite" professionals in the "big pharma" and beauty industries. I don't have the site bookmarked anymore but I'm sure I could find it again if I bothered myself to research it.

I see the lottery as *creating poverty* and not creating wealth or riches. The lottery system is owned by the government but those jackpots are created by the masses.

I once emailed the lottery system in my state and yelled at them for committing fraud (which I could prove). They responded by denying the blatantly obvious truth, and told me that they didn't like my swearing at them. If I had the money and could afford it, I would hire a dream team of attorneys to sue the Hell out of the United States fraudulent gaming system.

Anyway, what would you do with a quarter billion dollars? That's $250,000,000.00

With my luck, I'd be litigated for the rest of my life so it wouldn't be worth it.

What do Americans think about obscene lottery jackpots?

 

All I know in regards to the lottery, having gone through a statistics course, is that the odds are always against just about anyone who attempts to play.

My grandparents played every week for decades of their lives, and they never won anything.

I have never played for the simple reason that I will not waste any of my money into a veritable "gambling" economy.

 

i'd buy me some google shares

 

Only when I have to wait on line to buy a 40 and wait for the person in front of me to pick which tickets they want

 

We have a big lottery system here in there UK.Also many scratch cards and the like.A lot of the money raised from purchase of tickets goes to charities and projects to help people and stuff,so I suppose that is a good thing.But I see a lot of sad,sometimes old and generally zombie-like shufflers lining up to buy tickets in my local supermarket,and it makes me think how would all that money change them if they won.I mean,it's strange - just by randomly picking a few correct numbers you can become a millionaire in a matter of seconds.Many players live in anticipation of winning,thinking this would make them happy and solve all their problems.I don't like the concept of the way the lottery assumes that money is the raison d'être of existence and the highest goal one can aspire to.I mean what kind of society does this represent?

 

If you don't want lottery, you'd better head to one of these states:

Alabama
Alaska
Hawaii
Mississippi
Nevada
Utah

At the moment, Wyoming would be on that short list...but not for long. Before the year is out, they'll start up a state lottery and sell the MUSL games (PowerBALL, Mega Millions, Hot Lotto and one other that I forget). They, like Nebraska, will not be selling instant (scratch-off) tickets.

We've had a state lottery here in Connecticut since 1972. Our proceeds go into the state's General Fund, which helps out schools, transportation, medical, etc.

We started selling PowerBALL here in November of 1995. Mega Millions sales started in early 2010. Connecticut also heads up the Lucky For Life game, offering a top pre-tax prize of $1,000 a day for life. It's sold in all 6 New England states (CT/RI/MA/VT/NH/ME).

New Hampshire has the oldest legal state lottery in the United States (1964).

 

When I was in college, I had a German math professor who would often talk about the lottery. He would end the discussion by referring to the lottery as: "Dah ee-diot tahx." and then laugh for way too long. Except he didn't laugh, he just breathed through his nose really fast.

But he's got a point.

 

Sounds like Slavoj Zizek.

 

I don't play it and never will.
What really put me off was where the profits started going. Like £12m to E.ton school and shit like that. I can't understand why ANYONE played it after that.

I also think that if someone really, really, really wants 8, 10, 20 million, why don't they earn it in some way? Someone 300yds from me won sthg like 40.million GBP. But I still don't understand the mindset of it all. Taking risks is good, but you should have the odds in your favour. Or get some fun out of not winning.

 

I don't play because I don't want to live in false expectation of suddenly becoming very rich.I rather have to live with the mindset of knowing I'll never have a lot of money,which allows me to focus on other,perhaps more real aspects of my life.

 

I don't pay any attention, wealth is specifically acquired through evaluation.

 

When people are too smart for their own good they become eccentric :mickey:

 

what are your chances of winning? A quick look at the Powerball website tells you the probability of winning the jackpot is 1 in 175,223,510. To see where that number comes from, imagine purchasing every number combination. In Powerball, a player first picks five different whole numbers between 1 and 59. One could make a list of all the possibilities, starting with (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), (1, 2, 3, 4, 6), and so on all the way through (55, 56, 57, 58, 59). But it would take a long time to make that list, because it has more than five million entries! Indeed, mathematics tells us the number of ways to choose five distinct numbers from 1 to 59 is 5,006,386.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ronal...s-of-winning-powerball-lottery_b_3288129.html

Good luck, folks !!

 

The only time I play the lottery is when it’s over $400 million. BTW one of my all-time favorite short stories is entitled The Lottery by Shirley Jackson :2thumbsup:


Hotwater

 

as much of a scam the lottery is. i support people making bad decisions.

gives me constant supply of people i don't want to be

 

basically this. can't do anything at the gas station without getting behind one lottery person. and those people take forever to do anything. buy 20 lottery tickets, taking about 5 minutes to decide on each one, then they inevitably need a few packs of cigarettes and some chew, then they have to scratch or check their tickets without getting out of line, then they have to redeem any winners they may have had, then they have to spend any winnings on new tickets, taking about 5 minutes to decide on each one, then by that point they have finished their cigarettes so they need a few more packs, etc...

 

money doesn't make ya happy- - but it sure makes things easier- -( from experience)

 

living in the #2 gamboling capitol of the western u.s., i thoroughly appreciate this.

 

I've bought a few scratch offs in the past, but it's been years. I don't mind throwing away nominal amounts of money however. I think of I were to win a large sum of money via the lottery, I would probably be a tad pissed off over the high percentage of tax that would have to be paid. It's bs.

On a side note, my elementary school lunch lady won a decent amount of money. I don't recall how much. A couple hundred thousand I believe? I guess there's always a chance, as slim as it may be.

 

Never played it.